FIRST IMPRESSIONS 



dead at least, he hath evanished and to 

 the inexorable fiat of the range cattle butcher 

 all alike, Christian and heathen, submit not 

 altogether silently, perhaps, but still submit, 

 because, forsooth, the way of escape is not 

 yet made plain. To the health-seeker who 

 had often been cast adrift in the echoing 

 wilds of the Virginia mountain hostelry, the 

 culinary provision set forth by the Chinaman 

 had in it nothing strange or new. Seas of 

 grease ; wiry chickens slaughtered on the 

 back-porch an hour or so before the meal ; 

 delicacies of the like description thumped 

 down in front of the appetiteless in little 

 dabs of dishes who that has been ordered 

 to Virginia Springs for the benefit of his or 

 her health has not served faithful appren- 

 ticeship in the art of living on nothing ? 

 Not quite nothing, however, where the 

 matchless bread of the South is to be found, 

 but in Las Cruces there is no bread of the 

 South. 



Within a day or two of our arrival arose 

 one of the winds which sweep occasionally 

 through our midst ; and through our midst is 

 no mere figure of speech. Hour after hour 



